Matt Aslett's Analyst Perspectives

Increased enterprise focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) has served to sharpen the focus on the need for trusted data and reliable analytics and data operations. The ISG State of Generative AI Market Report highlighted that elevated expectations and demands associated with AI are a forcing function for enterprises to take long-overdue steps to improve data and analytics processes to ensure that data that is clean, well-organized and compliant with regulatory standards. Software providers such as Alteryx stand to gain by providing functionality that spans the data and analytics lifecycle, including data integration, data preparation and data quality, as well as the development of AI-enhanced analytics reports, dashboards and applications.

Alteryx was founded in 1997 with an initial focus on demographic mapping and reporting software. Its evolution into the company today began in 2006 with the first launch of its eponymous software for developing analytic processes and applications. The company remains known for its Alteryx Designer desktop analytics product as well as Alteryx Server for sharing and automating analytic processes, but has placed greater emphasis on Alteryx Analytics Cloud since its launch in 2022. In recent years the company has also invested in the incorporation of, and support for, AI. This includes the development of its AiDIN AI engine to automate and enhance analytics processes, as well as functionality to enable the use of Alteryx Analytics Cloud as a platform for automated machine learning. Alteryx was acquired by Clearlake Capital and Insight Partners in a deal that closed in March 2024 and valued the company at $4.4 billion. Since then Alteryx has hired former UserTesting and Salesforce executive Andy MacMillan as its Chief Executive Officer and former OpenText, and UserTesting executive Nali Giliana as Chief of Staff and Strategy to lead strategic priorities and drive innovation.

The Alteryx AI Platform provides capabilities for self-service data preparation, data enrichment, data quality, data integration, reporting, visualization, geospatial analytics, GenAI, conversational AI, machine learning and analytic application development. The company’s AI, GenAI and ML capabilities are served by the AiDIN AI engine, which complements existing functionality for natural language queries and natural language. First introduced in 2023, AiDIN utilizes GenAI models to add automation to Alteryx Analytics Cloud via functionality including document summarization, workflow summarization and the generation of recommended use-cases.

The functionality enabled by AiDIN is delivered via a variety of Alteryx Analytics Cloud products targeted at specific use-cases. For example, Alteryx Designer Cloud delivers AiDIN-powered functionality for workflow summarization as well as Alteryx Copilot, which was introduced in 2024 and provides guidance for the creation of analytics workflows in Alteryx Designer. Meanwhile Alteryx Auto Insights features visualization and document summaries, as well as Playbooks for the generation of recommended AI use-cases. Alteryx Analytics Cloud facilitates the development of AI-driven applications also offers autoML functionality via Alteryx Machine Learning, including automated feature engineering, as well as access to a variety of open source algorithms. As my colleague David Menninger recently explained, enterprise enthusiasm for the potential benefits of AI need to be tempered with an understanding of the importance of detecting and preventing bias and avoiding toxicity. In our recent ISG Market Lens study on GenAI, 39% of participants cited data privacy and security among the biggest inhibitors to adopting AI. Nearly a third (32%) identified performance and quality (e.g., erroneous results), and an equal amount (32%) mentioned legal risk. Alteryx has outlined its stance on these and other issues through the publication of its Responsible AI Principles, which addresses factors such as transparency and explainability, human agency and oversight, trust and accountability, reliability and safety, fairness and inclusivity, and empowering societal good.

The Fall 2024 release, announced in November 2024 included improved support for hybrid environments that span on-premises and cloud infrastructure. For example, Analytic Apps in Alteryx Cloud Execution for Desktop enables the deployment, management, and use of custom applications both in Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform environments, as well as on-premises infrastructure. This takes advantage of Alteryx Cloud Execution for Desktop’s support for executing workflows in Alteryx Analytics Cloud that have been developed using the desktop-based Alteryx Designer product. Alteryx also added a new Standard Mode to Designer Cloud that provides a user experience more similar to the desktop Designer product, including enhanced data preparation and blending functionality and the ability to avoid the need for sampling when building workflows. For those using the existing Cloud Native mode in Designer Cloud, the Fall 2024 release also introduced LiveQuery functionality to perform real-time analysis of data in Snowflake or Databricks. The latest release also included the public preview of Magic Reports, which bring AI-based assistance, including automated insights and visualization, to the reporting capabilities of Alteryx Auto Insights.

Alteryx has evolved its product portfolio significantly in recent years, with increased focus on cloud and hybrid environments, as well as AI-driven data preparation and analytics and now has the backing of heavyweight investment firms to grow its profile and reach. The breadth of capabilities addressed by Alteryx Analytics Cloud is highlighted by the company being rated as Exemplary in seven different ISG Buyers Guides in 2024: AI Platforms, MLOps, Data Integration, DataOps, Data Pipelines, Data Orchestration and Data Products. I recommend that enterprises considering their options for these, and related analytics and data use-cases include Alteryx in their evaluations.

Regards,

Matt Aslett